North’s Only Cancer Centre Could Be Forced To Close

The only cancer centre in the north of Scotland could be forced to close if NHS Highland fails to meet waiting-time targets, the health service’s chairman has warned.

The chairman of the NHS in the north, Garry Coutts, fears patients may lose confidence in the cancer department at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness if staff continually fail to meet Scottish Executive targets.

At a meeting of the NHS Highland board, he accepted that the Raigmore centre, the smallest in Scotland, has made some improvements. But he warned: “If we can’t perform the same as other cancer centres, there might be a tendency for people to think they should get treatment elsewhere.”

He said that might force the department to close and he added: “It would be disastrous for Highland not to have Raigmore as a cancer centre. We have got to make sure that Highland patients are getting the same level of care as patients elsewhere.”

The warning came after the Press and Journal revealed that, in October and December last year, fewer than 75% of cancer patients in the Highlands were diagnosed and began treatment within two months.

The executive wants 95% of people with suspected cancer to start treatment within 62 days – a target the board was supposed to meet by the end of 2005. It now has until the end of this year. In one of the worst cases in the north, a patient referred with suspected head and neck cancer waited 132 days, more than twice the target, to be treated.

Performance in some areas has improved. Almost nine in 10 breast cancer patients began treatment within the two-month target at the turn of the year, compared with less than half last summer. Other sections, like lung cancer, have worsened however.

Last summer, 94% of patients were being treated within the target time; that figure dropped to 72.2% earlier this year.

Chief operating officer Elaine Mead told yesterday’s meeting in Inverness the queues had been caused by the availability of only one PET scanner in Scotland – at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. She expects another to be unveiled in Glasgow that will significantly improve waiting times.

She said she had confidence waiting-time targets could be met but admitted it will be a “challenge” to meet them by the end of the year. “Whether we can do it as quickly as we are being asked is the question at the moment,” she said.

Last night Inverness MP Danny Alexander said: “It is extremely disappointing that faster progress has not been made with lowering waiting times for cancer treatment in the Highlands. There is no getting away from the very real effect which that has on clinical outcomes.

“Equally, any suggestion that cancer services could be removed from the Highlands altogether is completely unacceptable. Everything possible must be done to address the detailed reasons for the problems.”